Tata Harrier EV review — Dual motor, quadruple the fun?

It was the year 2018 when Tata unveiled the striking H5X concept — a bold declaration of its intent to move beyond small, budget-friendly cars and enter the premium SUV space. While the production model didn’t quite live up to the hype at first, Tata has steadily refined it over the years. And now, all that evolution has led to this — the Tata Harrier EV. The new Harrier EV is Tata’s most-advanced, most-powerful and most capable offering at a rather attractive price. We find out how good the new Harrier EV really is after spending a day with it.

Tata Harrier EV design 

If your main motivation for buying an EV is to stand out from the crowd, you should look away from the Harrier EV. After all, it’s a Harrier first and an EV later. This recipe may work for those who want the street cred and capabilities of the Harrier but in an eco-friendly packaging but may not fit the bill for those who prefer form over function. Speaking of the design updates the Harrier EV brings over the ICE Harrier, there are not many. You get an enclosed grille up front complimented by some vertical chrome slats on the lower bumper, 19-inch aero alloy wheels around the side and air curtains on the rear bumper. That’s pretty much all the key changes, apart from the abundance of .EV badging all around.

Step on the inside and the familiarity hits you, once again. The big change though is the big 14.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system that bundles wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay; 10 JBL Black speakers with a crisp user interface. It’s very often that we get to say that our experience with the UI was flawless—apart from a small flickering issue exclusive to our test car only. Needless to say, its sound system is a banger and you can tweak the tunes based on your preference choosing from a range of preset equalizer settings. Moving to the other important bits, there is heaps of space on the inside of the Harrier EV—be it the front- or the second-row. Even six footers would find ample room to stretch out and surprisingly not complain about not having enough underthigh support—a common issue in ICE-converted EVs. 

However, your family of five may complain about the boot space—that may sound great on the brochure boasting a capacity of over 500 litres—but lacks the practical space to accommodate large suitcases for those weekend getaways. Good thing in turn is the fact that Tata offers an 18-inch spacesaver tyre under the boot for those emergency situations. So as far as I am concerned, I will take that as a fair compromise.

Tata Harrier EV features 

On the features front, there are MANY. Let’s bundle the ones that are all over Instagram already—its self-parking capabilities. To begin with, Tata’s new round-shaped key looks chic but is as impractical as it can get. The buttons are small and extremely hard to press; hard enough to put a cut on your thumb if you are trying to park it from outside. Speaking of automatic parking, it works rather well, letting you park sitting on the inside or fully automatic with no one inside—not sure why you would prefer doing that standing in the scorching heat but anything for a cool party trick, I guess. Tata also seems to have taken some inspiration from some carmaker from Bavaria, as the new Harrier EV can remember your driving trajectory for a few metres and come out in reverse automatically while people on the outside praise your reverse driving skills.

Now coming to the list of more conventional features, the Harrier EV packs in a suite of Level-2 ADAS, 7-airbags, powered front seats with ventilation, memory function for driver’s seat and ORVMs, surround-view camera with transparent bonnet, digital IRVM, dual-zone climate control, ultra-fast type-C charging ports, terrain and drive modes, panoramic sunroof, ambient lighting and a long list of connectivity features. Needless to say, these features add to the already long list of features that you get in the standard Harrier diesel. In our experience, these new features worked fine but their long-term reliability is still questionable.

Also Read: Tata Altroz facelift drive review - Upping the ante

Tata Harrier EV drive experience

Alright, time to address the elephant itself—how does the Harrier EV drive? In a word — swiftly. Now that’s not something one would assume to be the primary keyword for a car as heavy as 2.3 tonnes. Thank Tata’s decision to stuff two electric motors, instead of one—that you can choose if you wish to. The combined power and torque output from the two electric motors stand at over 300PS and 500Nm—some serious figures for an SUV that’s meant to ferry your kids to school or roll down the fancy porch of your office. 

Activate the Boost mode and the Harrier EV changes its demeanour like you dropped the leash on a German Shepherd. Stamp on the throttle pedal and it begins to lift its nose—no matter the speed. It pulls relentlessly all the way from standstill to its electronically-limited top speed of 180kmph. Its throttle response becomes more aggressive, the steering wheel becomes more communicative and the brakes….. Well, that’s a bit of a disappointment as the brakes on the Harrier EV fail to induce the confidence in dropping the anchor. The pedal feels spongy and there is no defined end point for the pedal, limiting your understanding of finding where that limit is.

Throw the Harrier EV around a few flowing bends and it leaves you thinking, how an SUV looking like this can go as swiftly as that. Its nose feels chuckable and the tyres never seem to run out of grip—given you obey the Harrier EV’s gargantuan proportions. The Harrier EV is enjoyable around a curvy section of roads but you do feel its weight, as it changes directions and slightly rolls on the tips of its tyres. As the roads begin to point straight, it settles into its own groove—munching miles effortlessly with a settled ride and minimal body movement. You do meet the firm side of its suspension when the going gets tough but it never feels unsettling. Since it runs on a multi-link rear suspension, there is little to no side to side movement when going over those nasty speed breakers.

Also Read: Tata Curvv EV range test — How close is it to the claimed range?

Speaking about the Tata Harrier EV range, the company claims a C75 range of between 460km and 490km. When we started off our drive from the hotel with an SOC of 99%, the instrument cluster displayed a driving range of 480km. Given how badly these media units are handled in the spirit of testing, that’s one impressive number to begin with. Since we mostly drove the new Harrier in the Boost mode, it would not be ideal to gauge its range based on our driving impression. Nonetheless, in the past, we have found Tata’s C75 testing cycle to be fairly reliable and we would expect the new Harrier EV to deliver close to 480km on a single charge in mixed driving conditions.

Tata Harrier EV verdict

After spending close to six hours with the Harrier EV, we came out pleasantly surprised. There are many other electric SUVs in the market excelling in individual aspects but the Harrier EV impresses with its overall package — it’s a capable SUV when the beating gets tough and a smooth and comfortable mile-muncher when needed. Somehow, it still manages to offer enjoyable handling and bucket load of features, several of which are class leading. Needless to say, we would want to test these features over a longer period to understand their real-life implications and reliability. Summing it up, the Harrier EV is easily the most-capable and powerful SUV at this side of Rs 30 lakh and if these attributes are what you aspire from an EV—even if it looks a bit mundane—the Harrier EV is a no-brainer. 

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